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Thomas Maclear (1794 - 1879): Astronomer

Thomas Maclear was born in Newtownstewart, County Tyrone, and was educated at Guy's Hospital and St Thomas's Hospital in London. In 1815 he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons and worked in Bedford Infirmary, where he began to study astronomy and mathematics. In 1833 he was appointed Royal Astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope. He won the Lalande Prize and a Royal Medal for work which had been published in 1866. He made observations of many of the stars in the southern hemisphere, erected lighthouses on the African coast, and it is said that he taught David Livingstone the use of a sextant. He was knighted in 1860, and in 1876 became totally blind. He died in Cape Town.